FS Brabo

A story, a play, an article, a newspaper, a type specimen. Introducing FS Brabo. The eloquent type.

FS Brabo Type Specimen

—Editorial design

Fontsmith – London’s leading independent type design studio – tasked us with creating the type specimen for the release of FS Brabo: a contemporary reinterpretation of the early serifed typefaces, known as Garaldes, that originated in 16th century European publishing.

Celebrating the typeface’s literary lineage, we created the persona “The Eloquent Type” and the core idea “FS Brabo has a way with words”, which sat at the heart of the project.

The typeface itself was inspired by the extraordinary archive of punches, type and books at the world-renowned Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp, so we based the specimen on an equally historic Belgian paper size. Taking its cue from the font’s letterpress leanings, the large newspaper format incorporates a number of different typographic formats, including book title page, chapter openings, a play manuscript, and an editorial piece: the perfect way to show a typeface intended primarily for books, magazines and newspapers. And having been named after the mythical hero of the city of Antwerp, what better story to tell than the myth itself – beautifully written for us by Michael Evamy – as the centrepiece of the specimen.

A story, a play, an article, a newspaper, a type specimen. Introducing FS Brabo. The eloquent type.